Sayyed Nasrallah: We will not abandon Lebanese citizens in Syria's al-Qussair

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday that Israeli officials claimed shooting down a drone that took off from Beirut, pointing out that Israeli observers directly accused Hezbollah, but no official Israeli claim was raised against the party.             

During a televised speech delivered on Tuesday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said some Lebanese parties rushed to analyze the incident and accuse Hezbollah, but due to the sensitivity of the case, Hezbollah only denied the incident in a single written statement.             

In the same context, Sayyed Nasrallah said he does not deny the occurrence of the incident, but at the same time doubts it ever happened since there is no proof of its occurrence nor is there a UNIFIL validation to back it up.                                 

“We should take into account that what was may be fabricated; everybody knows that Hezbollah has the courage to claim the responsibility of its actions especially if these actions were related to Israel,” Nasrallah said.                            

Nasrallah added that there are various assumptions related to the drone; one of them being that “Israel introduced the drone into the Lebanese airspace and then sent it to Israel to shoot it down achieving by that a variety of media, political, and deterrence goals”.                       

“Lebanese citizens have the right to question and investigate this incident, especially when some express relief upon accusing Hezbollah albeit mistaken,” Nasrallah added.      

Sayyed Nasrallah called on all political parties that consider themselves the opponents of Hezbollah to stop bidding on issues related to Israel.           

As for the Syrian file, Nasrallah said that the past few weeks witnessed various events that led to media and political alertness and among these incidents

Hezbollah’s overhyped involvement in the Syrian crisis, adding that one of the major issues focused on was the number of members who had died in Syria.            

Nasrallah mentioned that “some media outlets claimed thousands of members had died in Syria” stressing that his party was never ashamed of its martyrs and public funerals are held for them.        

Sayyed Nasrallah mentioned that the Syrian situation is no longer related to bringing Syria out of the axis of resistance and of the equation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but instead is associated with the destruction of the Syrian state, its army, citizens and communities so as to become a powerless state.           

“Each armed group is linked to foreign intelligence forces and foreign countries,” he added.       

As for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Nasrallah said “this is an attempt to call for foreign intervention” pointing out that this idea is supported by various leaderships.         

On another note, Nasrallah said that “Jihad calls issued from Lebanon were neither new nor related to Hezbollah’s involvement in the crisis”.                    

Nasrallah addressed the Syrian opposition by saying that they will not be able to topple the regime militarily adding that “the battle is still long”.            

“Syria has ‘real friends’ that will not allow it to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel or takfirist groups,” he added.                    

Nasrallah called on Arab, Islamic, and the Syrian people who want to save Syria from its crisis as well as safeguard the Palestinian cause to work on finding a political solution stressing that the Syrian regime expressed its readiness to hold national dialogue but the 'other party' refused.                     

As for the issue of the reef of al-Qussair, Sayyed Nasrallah said that he tackled this matter publicly before stressing that 30 thousand Lebanese citizens are threatened there.                        

“We will not leave Lebanese citizens in reef al-Qussair vulnerable to attacks, and we will support their stay,” he stressed.       

In regards to the Shiite Shrine of Sayeda Zainab located in Damascus, Nasrallah said that the Syrian opposition took control over the Eastern and Western Ghouta, and is currently besieging the region that includes the shrine stressing that this issue is of extreme sensitivity since armed groups threatened to destroying the highly revered sanctum.      

“Should the Sayeda Zeinab shrine be destroyed, then matters will spin out of control,” he warned.          

In regards to the Lebanese detainees in Syria’s Aazaz, Nasrallah said, “this is a painful issue that the country hasn’t been able to solve yet”.                

Nasrallah added that demonstrations that call for the release of the detainees might not be fruitful since negotiations between authorities and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Turkey did not yield successful results.       

“Some say the kidnappers are waiting for the right political timing to release the abductees; this is shameful,” Sayyed Nasrallah concluded.